How much does feeding myself for a year cost?

[Syringer]

So I'm still deciding what to do about this..cook next year or get the meal plan which costs $1000/quarter (3 months)

What will it cost then to feed someone who's 5'9" 175 lb..for 3 basic meals a day? First meal of the day will probably be at most a waffle or two, or milk + cereal..then I can get fancier with my other meals. I'll also be downing a couple of protein shakes, one between lunch and dinner, and one before sleeping, as I do now.

So, any rough estimates of how much it'd cost?

 

[ElFenix]

$10 a day

actually its hard to get by on that at times.

 

[Kelvrick]

Rough estimate without eating out? Well, maybe once in a while without anything fancy, $100 a month, so 1200.

 

[Zugzwang152]

depends, waffles, etc can get expensive. If y ou eat cheap generic cereal for breakfast, you could go a long way. For lunch and dinner, ramen or rice + cheap entree will keep your costs to about $10/day or less even.

 

[Schadenfreude]

Depends on the availablity of the grocer stores nearby/accessibility, eating habits (do you snack often?), even how active your lifestyle is(fast food anyone?)!

And it also depends on how concientious of a consumer you are as well. That having been said, good luck!

 

[Eli]

It's totally going to depend on your diet.

You could get by on as little as 1200/mo if you were thrifty and ate garbage cheapo food(ramen, macaroni, etc).

I'd say 3000 - 3500/year is much more reasonable, though.

More if you want to eat healthy. Fruits and veggies are pretty damn expensive.

 

[Imported]

As said before, really depends on your diet..

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: Kelvrick
Rough estimate without eating out? Well, maybe once in a while without anything fancy, $100 a month, so 1200.

1200 is impossible.

 

[Schadenfreude]

Originally posted by: Eli
It's totally going to depend on your diet.

You could get by on as little as 1200/mo if you were thrifty and ate garbage cheapo food(ramen, macaroni, etc).

I'd say 3000 - 3500/year is much more reasonable, though.

More if you want to eat healthy. Fruits and veggies are pretty damn expensive.

Are you talking in canadian money? Wait, that'd amount to $0.17 USD< so it wouldn't make sense . . ..

 

[AUMM]

Originally posted by: Kelvrick
Rough estimate without eating out? Well, maybe once in a while without anything fancy, $100 a month, so 1200.

100 bucks a month?? how do u survive??

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: ElFenix

Originally posted by: Kelvrick
Rough estimate without eating out? Well, maybe once in a while without anything fancy, $100 a month, so 1200.

1200 is impossible.

Nahhh.... It would be very difficult, and not very healthy... but not impossible...

You can make 3 meals a day out of 3 dollars and 20 cents.. if you eat mostly pasta and canned things.

 

[Eli]

bah, dp.

 

[kami333]

Lots and lots of rice.

Currently getting by on less than $5 a day.

Depending on how you eat it's not that hard at all, steaks are out of the question but I buy chicken at Sams Club and freeze it, make hamburger and freeze them, etc. Make sandwiches for lunch, don't buy sodas, stop eating snacks. It's actually made me eat healthier.

 

[Kelvrick]

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: ElFenix

Originally posted by: Kelvrick
Rough estimate without eating out? Well, maybe once in a while without anything fancy, $100 a month, so 1200.

1200 is impossible.

Nahhh.... It would be very difficult, and not very healthy... but not impossible...

You can make 3 meals a day out of 3 dollars and 20 cents.. if you eat mostly pasta and canned things.

Maybe that was because it was on the flyer for college students. Ok, let me actually think about it. I go to the market about once a week, spend about 20 bucks each time. Thats roughly 80 bucks a month with another say 40 bucks for fast food and such while I'm at work.

Maybe its because I shop smart? Food-4-less, looking at ads and not just getting what I feel like. Fruit? Super-markets often have fruits for .99 or less a lb such as oranges and apples. Pasta with some chicken is plenty healthy with lettece and cabbage at about a dollar each. Carrots are pretty cheap too.

It would all work out perfectly except for the gf and I going out every once in a while so that racks up like another 50 bucks a month.

Oh, I'm 5'9-5"10 depending, I vary so much. Might be the hair. I weigh 145.

EDIT: Yes, I'm asian and eat lots of rice also. And to explain the meat, I don't buy steak or anything. Almost all the meat I buy is under 2 bucks a lb. Buy chicken without being cut up or during a sale and you can often get it for a buck a lb. Ground beef can also be had for a buck a lb. For pork, every 2 weeks or so I can get em for 2 bucks a lb. For demographics sake, I live in Davis, California (10 minutes west of Sacramento, Ca)

To sum it up for a week of groceries
$3----3lb's of apples, oranges, bananas mix-n-match
$5----3 lbs of chicken, usually a whole chicken I cut up interchanged with 2 1/2 lb of meet
$3----a bag of pasta and some tomatoes for sauce
$2----bread or two of white bread
$1----1 liter of soda for every once in a while
$1----a head of lettuce or cabbage with maybe a few carrots
$2----Misc such as milk, eggs, and such.

That brings it to $17 bucks. Remember, they don't charge tax on food. Add into that another buck for my weeks worth of rice and I'm pretty much set.

 

Originally posted by: Kelvrick

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: ElFenix

Originally posted by: Kelvrick
Rough estimate without eating out? Well, maybe once in a while without anything fancy, $100 a month, so 1200.

1200 is impossible.

Nahhh.... It would be very difficult, and not very healthy... but not impossible...

You can make 3 meals a day out of 3 dollars and 20 cents.. if you eat mostly pasta and canned things.

Maybe that was because it was on the flyer for college students. Ok, let me actually think about it. I go to the market about once a week, spend about 20 bucks each time. Thats roughly 80 bucks a month with another say 40 bucks for fast food and such while I'm at work.

Maybe its because I shop smart? Food-4-less, looking at ads and not just getting what I feel like. Fruit? Super-markets often have fruits for .99 or less a lb such as oranges and apples. Pasta with some chicken is plenty healthy with lettece and cabbage at about a dollar each. Carrots are pretty cheap too.

It would all work out perfectly except for the gf and I going out every once in a while so that racks up like another 50 bucks a month.

Oh, I'm 5'9-5"10 depending, I vary so much. Might be the hair. I weigh 145.

EDIT: Yes, I'm asian and eat lots of rice also. And to explain the meat, I don't buy steak or anything. Almost all the meat I buy is under 2 bucks a lb. Buy chicken without being cut up or during a sale and you can often get it for a buck a lb. Ground beef can also be had for a buck a lb. For pork, every 2 weeks or so I can get em for 2 bucks a lb. For demographics sake, I live in Davis, California (10 minutes west of Sacramento, Ca)

To sum it up for a week of groceries
$3----3lb's of apples, oranges, bananas mix-n-match
$5----3 lbs of chicken, usually a whole chicken I cut up interchanged with 2 1/2 lb of meet
$3----a bag of pasta and some tomatoes for sauce
$2----bread or two of white bread
$1----1 liter of soda for every once in a while
$1----a head of lettuce or cabbage with maybe a few carrots
$2----Misc such as milk, eggs, and such.

That brings it to $17 bucks. Remember, they don't charge tax on food. Add into that another buck for my weeks worth of rice and I'm pretty much set.

thats right everybody...SHOP SMART! SHOP S SMART!

 

[manly]

Very few single people could live on $25/week without resorting to instant ramen or mac & cheese every day of the week to hold down costs. The level of discipline required is insane, which is why ElFenix said it's impossible.

You could do it if you're cooking for a 4-person family of course ($100/week that is), but the economics don't really scale down to a single, young individual (often someone incapable of even cooking one nutricious meal, let alone 2 a day without getting bored after the first week). And even for a family, that would still be relatively economical cooking.

The right advice is to get the meal plan; the last thing you want to worry about as an undergrad is feeding yourself 15-20 times a week. Unless the food absolutely stinks, have them handle at least 10 of those meals for you.

 

[Krutoy]

Lol, defenetely go with the UCLA meal plan. The cafeteria is like a 4 star restaurant, I remember friends telling me how great the UCLA food is. The $1000 is reasonable in my opinion as it covers 3 meals a day for 3 months. The last thing you want to worry about in college is food, saving yourself the time of getting/cooking the food, having great variety, and tasting better than what you can cook is great. From experience, go for the dorm food and you won't regret it.

 

[Kelvrick]

Yes, if I also recommend the meal plan, but the smaller one because personally I get bored with their selection.

I can survive because iono, I come home from school/work and cook for an hour or so for dinner and breakfast, maybe lunch the next day. I don't go out as much, maybe a day or two each week and spend a lot of my time going through the newspaper so my eye catches a lot of adds. That, plus there are 3 supermarkets within 5 minutes of me so I can pick and choose.

 

[Electric Amish]

Originally posted by: ElFenix

Originally posted by: Kelvrick
Rough estimate without eating out? Well, maybe once in a while without anything fancy, $100 a month, so 1200.

1200 is impossible.

No way!! It's easy especially if you're not particular.

I only eat 2 meals a day and even eating out I can do that for <$6 a day.

Eating at home you can get an 8pk of hot dogs and and 8pk of buns for <$3 @ 2 meals a day, 2 Hot Dogs per meal, that's 2 days of food for $3.

amish

 

[vi edit]

Depends. Meats, cheeses, soft drinks, alchohol, and fresh produce can kill your budget.

The meal plan is effectively $333 a month. That's A LOT of money for food...especially for one person. You can eat VERY well for that kind of money.

 

[Toasthead]

take the amount you eat in a day and times it by the number of days you will be eating


pretty simple actually